Seal-feed for bottle-sealing machines.



c. WINTER.

SEAL FEED FOR BOTTLE SEALING MACHINES. APPLICATION FILED EEB. 2l, 1910.

CHARLES WINTER, or woonnunu, NEW JERSEY, AssIGNon. 'ro STAB, smut. COMPANY,

\ A CORPORATION or Nnw Yoan.

SEAL-Nunn Fou. Bo'rrLusnnnrNG Nincnnuvns.l

inmates. l

' Specifica/.tion of Letters Paten-t.

Patented application mea'ibruary 21,1910.- serml-nmiaess.

To all'whom z'tmay concern.

Be it known that I, Crmmns WINTER, a

' citizen of the United States, residing in Woodbury, county of Gloucester, State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements'in Seal-Feeds for Bottle-Sealing Machines, of which the following is a specification. n y This invention relates to a'safety device for use with automatic'. seal feeds of bottle seal applying machines, and: is designedv to prevent the introduction of a seal into the seal holder or chuck in the while the chuck contains a sea My invention is particularly adapted for use with the seal feed or my co-pending ap-` plication Serial No. 498,282,l but it may be applied to other forms of seal feedv and other constructions of Sealing head without departing from the spirit of my invention;

ln the accompanying' drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of the parts .of a sealing machine to whichI my improvement is applied; Fig. 2 is a front elevation thereof partly in section ;y and Fig. 3' is a horizontal section on the line III-H11 of Fig. 2.

1 is the sealing head containing the mechanism for applying the seal to the bottle, and into which the seal is to be automatically fed. The head 1 is fixed on'the rod 2,

which is pivotally connected to the link 3- leading to mechanism (notl shown) for producing a reciprocation of the rod 2 when desired. On the frame 4, in which the rod reciprocates, there `is mounted a bottle seat 5 in line with the sealing head 1 and designed to support the bottle 6 during the sealing operation. These are `the main working parts of la machine oftliis' character, and in many types the seals may be-fed into thev sealing head by hand, but insome cases, particularly where the bottles are fed automatically, it is desirable to automaticallyintroduce a seal into the head on each sealing stroke thereof. The diiliculty with this is that it sometimes happens that there is no bottle in place when the sealing stroke is made, and therefore a new seal is fed into the head althoughthe one already in place has not been removed by the bottle.

It has been suggested to automatically eject the positioned seal when the bottle is not in place, but this isobjectionable because the seals thus vejected must -be collected and again passed rthrough the separator, and

' therefore f the runway 7. At its end a spring head onlywhen the positioned seal has been removed by the bottle.`

ll accomplish this object by Ineensy which are independent vof the 'apparatus' for separating and individualizing the `seals "and feeding them into they head, as yit is all ac- .ianemiaia prefer to feed 'asealinto the i complishedin therunway-fromi the separator to the feeder, and therefore Lhave not illustrated the details of these parts, but refer to my said co-pending application for vinformation as to one forml thereof; seallng head 7 1s the' runway from the separator down which the lower part 7 to the the seals 8, l8 travel by gravity. t'

p'er part 7 is attached to the stationary separat-or. At the mouth vide a compound stop, pivotally mounted on consisting of a rod 9 a bracket 10 fixed' on carries a fixed finger 11, and at its upper pass through a slot in the side' of' the runway and bear against a seal, and preferably pressed finger 12, adapted toy of the runway 7 lf prolower end thi's'rod 9' a second spring' pressed finger" 13' adapted to bear against theside of the runwayabove the slot.

A. trip '14 at the to be raised at the of the sealing head the adjustable screw 16. en' the" trip 14: is raised the spring linger 12 bears against the second seal in the runway 7 and'l the spring finger 13 is bearing' against the side of the runway, but fixed finger 11 is held away from the bottom seal'in the runway 7 pivoted point isl adapted upper end of the stroke by a Abracket 15 having so that itis .free to fall into the top of the V runway 7 if that' space is` not already occupied. When the trip i's` released, the springs on the fingers 12 andf 13 will force the finger 11 into the slbt inthe side of the runway 7, and if there is a seal at the mouth of *theV runway 7 the finger 11 will bear against and preventit' from dropping out, and at the same time the spring'finger`12 will bearnagain'st the second seal in the column. lf, however, there is no seal at' the mouth of the runway 7, the fixed'finger 11 will pass on into the runway 7- and the spring on the finger 13 will force the' finger v 12 out of 'contact with the seal, and the supported by the finger 11.

side the head, through a sl/ot l21, -above the seal holder 22. At its other end this rod carries a tripper' 23 adapted to move the stop 17, andhaving an adjustable screw 24. When the sealing head moves down over the bottle the seal holder or chuck is moved up in the headagainst the .Spring 25, and this y movement -ofthe chuck releases the seal at the top of the runway 7 but if there is no bottle in position, the chuck is not moved and consequently no seal is released..

The operation of my invention is as follows: With the parts in the position shown in Fig. 2, and a seal in the seal holder, as shown in dotted lines, a bottle is placed under the sealing head and the latter started in emotion.`v The early downward movement of the sealing head carries the runway 7 away from the runway 7, and with itthe bracket'l, so that the finger 11 is`forced against the lowerseal in the runway 7, so as to prevent it from falling out. Continued movement `of the sealing head brings the sealholder down on top of -the bottle, so

that it is forcedup into the sealing head'. As the seal holder is forced into the sealing head, it raises Ithe rod 20 and the tripper 23,- so as to operate the stop 17 and release the seal in the top of the runway 7. This seal falls down through the runway into position to be forced into the chuck on the up stroke of the sealing head in lplace of the seal which is now in thatposition. Continued downward movement of the sealing head applies the seal to the bottle, after which the head commences its upward movey ment. Toward the end of the up stroke the seal, which has dropped to the bottom. of the runway 7', is pushed into the now. empty seal chuck, and at about the same time the stop 17 returns to its normal position so as to hold up the seal. At the end ofk the up stroke of the sealing head the trip 14.- is operated so that the finger 11 is drawn out of the runway 7 and out 4of contact with the bottom seal in that runway, while the second seal in the runway is held in position by the spring nger 12. This allows'the bottom sealy to drop intothe now em ty mouth of the runway 7 If now a comp ete movement of the sealinghead is made without a bottle in osition, the seal which hasl just been placed) in the seal holder will not be removed because there is no bottle in position to receive it. Furthermore, the

seal at the top of the runway 7 will not be -tionary runway,

released, because there is no bottle in position to move the seal holder. And finally, the seal at the bottom of the runway 7 will not fall into the runway 7 because the space is already occupied.

It will be observed, therefore, that broadly considered, my invention consists in controlling the supply of seals to the seal holder by means of the bottle, and that the details of the mechanism for performing this operation may be varied to a considerable extent without departing from the spirit of my invention. n

Having described my invention, claim is:

1. In apparatus for automatically feeding what I seals to bottle seal applying machines, the

combination of a sealing head, a movable seal holder therein, a seal runway having one portion stationary and the other portion movable with the sealing head, means operated bythe movable seal holder for releasing a single seal from the movable portion of the runway, and means operated by the movement of the sealing head for releasing a single seal from the stationary portion of the runway.

2. In apparatus for automatically feeding seals to bottle seal applying machines, the combination of a sealing head, a movable seal holder therein, a seal runway having one portion stationary and the other portion movable with the sealing head, means operated by the movable seal holder for releasing a single seal from the movable portion of the runway on the down stroke of the sealing head, and means operated by the movement, of the sealing head for releasing a single seal from the stationary portion of the runway on the up stroke of the sealing head.

In bottle seal applying machines, the combination of a reciprocating sealing head, a seal holder disposed therein to reciprocate therewith and to be movable relative thereto during a sealing operation, a seal runway,

means operatively connected to the head for releasing a seal in said runway on the upward movement of the head, a stop operating in the runway to support the released seal, and means carried by said head and operatively connected to the seal holder to be operated upon the relative movement of the seal holder and head for moving the stop to release the seal.

4. In bottle seal applying machines, the combination of reciprocating sealing mechanism comprising parts having relative motion during a seahng operation, a stationary runway, a runway secured to reciprocate with one of the .said sealing mechanism parts to bring it to and from the said stamechanism in operable connection with another of said sealing mechanism parts to be operated 'by the said relative movement of saidparts to e'ect a feedingof one seal to the sealing mechanism for each sealing operation, and meansI operated by the upward stroke of said sealing mechanism for feeding a seal runway to said reciprocating 'runwa 5. In bottle seal applying machines, the combination of reciprocating sealing mechanism comprising parts having relative motion during a sealing operation, a stationary runway, a runway secured to reciprocate with one of the said .sealing mechanism parts to bring it to and from the said stationary runway, mechanism in operable connection with the other of said sealing mechanism parts to be operated by the said relative movement of said parts to eli'ect a feeding of one seal to the sealing mechanism for each sealing operation, a pair of stops one above the other operating within said stationary runway, and an arm moving upwardly with the upward stroke of said sealing mechanism to operate said stops to engage them intermittently with adjacent seals to permit the lowermost seal to escapefto the lower runway and the, column' of "seals to advance until the next seal is engaged by the lower sto (il.) In bottle seal applying machines, the combination of a reciprocating sealing head, a seal runway, seal feeding mechanism therein for said sealing head dependently operable upon the presence of a bottle in position to be sealed, other seal feeding.

mechanism above said first feeding mechanism for feeding seals to said rst feeding mechanism, and means operatively connected to the sealing head for operating said second feeding mechanism upon the upward movement of the sealing head;

7. In bottle seal applying machines, the combination of reciprocating sealing mechanism comprising parts having relative motion during a sealing operation, a stationary runway, a runway secured to reciprocate with one of the said sealing mechanism parts to bring it to and from the said stationary from said stationary runway, an automatically returnable/ seal supporting lever for said reciprocatlng run- 4way, an arm secured to another of said sealparts to operate said lever mg mechanism when there is relative motion between said sealing mechanism parts to pass a seal, a lever fulcrumed to said stationary runway, arlower arm on said lever adapt the lowermost of a column of seals, a second arm above said lower arm, af pin through said second arm adapted to e gage the second of said seals, a spring on said pin to retain it in spring pressed engagement with its seal, a second pin through said second arm a spring on said pintojj automatically return lsaid arms to bringfsaid first arm in engagement with its seal andf to release said irst pin fromengagement with its seal, an operating arm for said lever, and an arm secured to said reciprocating runway to raise said operatingv arm at the upper reciprocation to release said first arm from pass said seal to the reciprocating runway and to engage said first pin with its seal.

8. In combination with a closure feeding mechanism, of a closure-applying mechanism including a movable sealing-headincluding member having thrustwise movement and having a closure feedingv chute attached thereto, said chute and closure feeding mechanism having relative movement into and' out of closure transferring proximity to each other, means for moving the closureapplying mechanism to elfect said relative movement of the chute and closure feeding mechanism and means carried by said chute for normally restraining the feed of the closures, said means being movable with the chute, andk mechanism actuated by the presv ence of a bottle in said sealing head including member to release said closure.-

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence. of

two witnesses.

t Y CHARLES WVINTER.

IVitnesses:

VIRGINIA ANIiREws, DAVID O. WATKINS.

d toengagev its seal to 

